The Spanish telco said initial 5G launch in the United Kingdom will be followed by deployments in Spain and Germany

SHANGHAI–The U.K. will likely be the first market to see 5G services from Spanish telecommunications firm Telefonica, the operator’s global CTO Enrique Blanco told reporters during Mobile World Congress Shanghai. Blanco said the initial deployments will take place in the U.K., followed by Germany and Spain, in 2020 or 2021.

He added that the maturity in the deployment of 4G service will be key to decide the timeline for 5G deployments in Telefonica’s markets, noting that one of the telco’s current main priorities is to continue deploying LTE in order to expand coverage of this technology in the markets where the operator has a commercial presence.

“We will continue working to expand LTE in our markets and we will see the maturity…